The Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) Board on Tuesday night approved a proposal from the NSW Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association (GBOTA) to fund and operate the Wagga Wagga Greyhound Racing Club.
GRNSW received the submission from the GBOTA in May which stated that the organisation was offering a financial and organisational commitment to upgrade the circle track to Minimum Track Standards (MTS) and also proposed the building of a straight track.
The GBOTA agreed that they would operate both the Wagga Wagga club and Temora club within the existing 104 race meetings allocated for the Riverina Region.
The GRNSW Board sought additional information around the proposal and tasked Deloitte Australia with that job.
Deloitte had been engaged by GRNSW last year to produce the Racing Footprint Optimisation report, a document which saw the Wagga Wagga track marked to one of the tracks for closure.
Deloitte considered the GBOTA’s submission to upgrade the circle racetrack and also the submission for the construction of a straight track at Wagga Wagga, and following the receipt of the report from Deloitte, the GRNSW Board decided to approve the proposal to upgrade the circle track but not to allow the building of a straight track.
“Deloitte’s original assessment of Wagga placed the club in 20th position in the ranking based on a variety of criteria that all clubs were judged upon,” GRNSW Chief Executive Officer Steve Griffin said.
“Following the proposal from the GBOTA, Deloitte reassessed Wagga against the same criteria, and made adjustments to categories such as tenure, commercial viability, injury data and expenditure to meet MTS.
“Deloitte completed their analysis on July 26, and informed us that following this reassessment of Wagga Wagga, the unweighted scoring has moved from 12 points to 21 points, and consequently improves the club’s ranking from 20th to seventh, three points behind Temora which is ranked sixth.
“We are very happy for the people of Wagga who were naturally upset when the original announcement was made to close the track, but as we said at the time we followed a process in looking at Optimisation and we had to stick with those results. Now, following this proposal from the GBOTA to take over the club and finance the upgrades, the people of the Riverina will continue to have two racetracks.”
The latest Deloitte report also confirmed that while the proposed investment from the GBOTA does improve Wagga’s future sustainability and assessment ranking, it does not change the underlying demand profile for the Riverina.
A key aspect of Deloitte’s analysis was that, given current greyhound population and nominations, the region could not support any more than 111 race meetings annually. The GBOTA’s proposal indicated their acceptance not to seek any additional race meetings.
“Deloitte found that investment in an additional straight track may be better directed to locations where it addresses a demonstrated network needed, and approval of a new straight track at the Wagga would be contrary to the findings and conclusion made by Deloitte as part of the sport’s optimisation strategy.”
GBOTA President Geoff Rose said the news was wonderful for the participants and community in Wagga Wagga.
“This is exactly what we wanted. Wagga is a big inland city and we wanted to support the participants in the region,” Mr Rose said. “We understand the decision about the straight track and we are not going to object to that.
“I think this is a great outcome and it has been very pleasing that the GBOTA and GRNSW Boards have been about communicate together and get a positive outcome for the industry and for community in Wagga.”
Wagga Wagga Greyhound Club President Ben Talbot said he can finally exhale now having heard the news that his club will survive.
“It's been a long road, and the support we have had from the community, participants, local MPs … everyone, has been amazing. You will hear Wagga cheering from Sydney,” Mr Talbot said.
“Credit where credit's due, I take my hat off to GBOTA for coming forward and it’s one thing to say we're going to help you, but they have followed through and backed it 100%. I cannot thank them enough.
“It’s been a long fight and a tough one at times, but you just put your head down and just keep fighting, and all that matters is the end result. And this is the result we all hoped for.”
